Terraform Enterprise FDO Docker Startup Error: WARN[0000] The "COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME" variable is not set

Problem

When starting Terraform Enterprise using Flexible Deployment Options (FDO) with Docker, you may encounter the following warning after running docker compose up:

$ docker compose up --detach

WARN[0000] The "COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME" variable is not set. Defaulting to a blank string.

The compose file is taken from the Mounted disk installation documentation. This variable is used in the configuration as shown below.

TFE_DISK_CACHE_VOLUME_NAME: "${COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME}_terraform-enterprise-cache"

Although Terraform Enterprise starts and you can log in, runs are not executed.

Prerequisites

• You are using Terraform Enterprise FDO with Docker.

Cause

This issue occurs when the installed version of Docker Compose is too old to correctly handle the COMPOSE_PROJECT_NAME variable. You can verify your version by running the docker info command and checking the compose plugin version.

An outdated version will appear similar to the following output.

Client:
 Docker Engine - Community
  Version:    24.0.5
  Context:    default
  Debug Mode: false
  Plugins:
   buildx: Docker Buildx (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.11.2
    Path:     /usr/libexec/docker/cli-plugins/docker-buildx
   compose: Docker Compose (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v2.6.0
    Path:     /usr/libexec/docker/cli-plugins/docker-compose
   scan: Docker Scan (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.23.0
    Path:     /usr/libexec/docker/cli-plugins/docker-scan

Solutions

Solution 1: Upgrade Docker Compose

Upgrade the Docker Compose software to version 2.21.0 or higher.

After upgrading, the output of docker info should show the updated version.

Client:
  Context:    default
  Debug Mode: false
  Plugins:
   buildx: Docker Buildx (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v0.11.2
    Path:     /usr/libexec/docker/cli-plugins/docker-buildx
   compose: Docker Compose (Docker Inc.)
    Version:  v2.21.0
    Path:     /usr/libexec/docker/cli-plugins/docker-compose

Outcome

After upgrading Docker Compose, the Terraform Enterprise environment should start without the warning.

$ docker compose up --detach

[+] Running 2/2
 ✔ Network terraform-enterprise_default   Created 0.1s 
 ✔ Container terraform-enterprise-tfe-1  Started

Additional Information

• For installation instructions, refer to the Terraform Enterprise Flexible Deployment Options for Docker documentation.
• For more details on updating your environment, see the official Docker Compose installation documentation.